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El Paso County Sheriff's Office entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
El Paso County Sheriff's Office starts at $50,850 a year — about $24.45 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $17,540 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $14,524 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Texas run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $52,392 would somewhere at average prices — $1,542 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 98. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
How big the department isEl Paso County Sheriff's Office reported 291 sworn officers and 766 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025.No rate is shown: this agency does not police a single population the FBI publishes a figure for. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, so a count can reflect a partial return as easily as a small agency, and the FBI asks that agencies not be compared on staffing. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, 2025.
About El Paso County
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office polls the largest border county in Texas, running the county jail system in downtown El Paso and far-east Montana Vista alongside patrol of the unincorporated county. Everyone starts in the jail: new hires enter as Detention Officer Trainees, are licensed as jailers through the Office's own Region VIII academy, and the deputy ranks are filled from those detention officers, so the detention scale is the pay every new hire actually starts on.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 18 August 2026. County of El Paso, Texas, FY2026 Sheriff - Detention Pay Scales, Detention Officer step 1, effective 1 October 2025 — open the source document
The County of El Paso's FY2026 Sheriff Detention Pay Scale sets Detention Officer step 1 at $24.4472 an hour, which is $50,850.18 over the 2,080-hour year, effective 1 October 2025. This is a jail agency entry in the same sense as the county's own hiring: the Sheriff's Office hires from the street into one class only, Detention Officer Trainee, at $45,406.40 ($21.83 an hour) per the county's own continuous posting (job 2025-00351, open through 30 September 2026), requiring a high school diploma or GED, age 18, and meeting TCOLE initial licensure standards - no prior law enforcement experience. Completing the Sheriff's Office/Region VIII Training Academy and the TCOLE jailer licensing examination moves the trainee onto the Detention Officer scale, a classification change, so the entry figure is Detention Officer step 1. The trainee class sits outside the collective bargaining agreement (the county lists its scale as 'non CBA') and its rate has been flat across the FY2025 and FY2026 postings, while the Detention Officer scale carries the negotiated raises. Deputy Sheriff is not an off-the-street hire here: the sworn peace-officer track runs through the Detention Bureau by promotion, and even certified lateral deputies are assigned to Detentions on academy graduation. For scale, Deputy Sheriff step 1 on the FY2026 Law Enforcement scale is $28.5526 an hour ($59,389.41), stepping over 21 steps to $46.7867 ($97,316.34); Detention Officer tops out at step 21, $40.0596 an hour ($83,323.97). The scale's own raise arithmetic closes exactly: FY2024 step 1 of $22.7151 x 1.05 = $23.8509 (FY2025) and x 1.025 = $24.4472 (FY2026), all to the fourth decimal.
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
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Entry pay, 2022–2025
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
How this level compares
Where El Paso County sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. El Paso County starts at $50,850, so $14,524 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a El Paso County Sheriff's Office officer make?
El Paso County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $50,850 a year, about $24.45 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from County of El Paso, Texas, FY2026 Sheriff - Detention Pay Scales, Detention Officer step 1, effective 1 October 2025.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #130 of 140 agencies we have verified in Texas — 10 pay less, 129 pay more in the state — and #1,538 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $17,540 below, and against other county agencies $14,524 below.
Compare with another department
Put El Paso County Sheriff's Office side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in TX
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs El | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$40,256 | #192 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$39,900 | #200 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 414 | $90,729 | +$39,879 | #201 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$39,150 | #216 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | — | $87,048 | +$36,198 | #264 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$35,418 | #276 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$34,118 | #293 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$33,598 | #300 |
| 9 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,082 | +$33,232 | #306 |
| 10 | Baytown Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,049 | +$33,199 | #307 |
| 11 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | +$33,142 | #309 |
| 12 | Mesquite Police Department | Municipal | 260 | $83,869 | +$33,018 | #312 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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